


Stronger than one

by HuepfKaese



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types, Wiedźmin | The Witcher Series - Andrzej Sapkowski
Genre: Basically just some drabble I thought of while drunk, Blood Drinking, Conversation, Discussing being anathema, I aint alcoholic tho, Walk on the beach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 11:42:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14914736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HuepfKaese/pseuds/HuepfKaese
Summary: Regis while on his way to Nilfgaard, opted to take a de-tour along the coast, to have more time to reflect on recent events. When he stops one evening in a certain seashore inn, a woman meets his gaze. Danger radiates in the air, or is it all just a misunderstanding?





	Stronger than one

Regis got off his mule. He'd acquired it some time ago, before setting off for Nilfgaard. 

Surely he would have been much faster if he didn’t limit himself to the speed of a single creature. But not only was the animal carrying his vast collection of various tomes, but also did Regis not entirely wish to ever arrive in Nilfgaard. He certainly didn’t want to risk his safety more than necessary now that he's been declared anathema, but he wanted to take his time getting to his final destination. 

He opted for a longer route along the coastline to reach the town of Fano lying near Jealousy, Nilfgaard. He was sure he'd encounter less of his kin this way. He stopped often. Not only did his journey already take longer than needed due to his choice of route, but also because he opted to halt at taverns every now and then to sleep on something other than his bedroll. 

Regis, being a vampire, did of course also not need to sleep. But he's grown accustomed to it, and he also enjoyed the temporary relief unconsciousness brings. He had left much behind in Toussaint after ending the existence of his dear friend and blood brother. So a small time in which his thoughts didn’t haunt him, was always welcome. 

He bound his steed to a shaky pole along the taverns yard and entered. Regis planned on eating a small meal and later renting a room for the night. 

Inside the inns warm, cozy hall was a ruckus. Due to the establishments proximity to the sea, lots of sailors and pirates celebrated their evenings here. This of course didn’t bother him, as he didn’t look wealthy enough to make a neat target for mugging or similar attacks. 

With a slight nod of the head towards any guests that had turned to eye the new arrival he moved along the wooden floor towards a small table in a quiet corner. He sat down on the bench, facing the open hall. The innkeep rushed to his table and took his order. He had decided to only spend so much here, so a mug of water, some bread and broth was enough for him. 

As soon as the round innkeep left his table, Regis took in his surroundings. He counted five other tables, excluding the one he was seated at. Four of those were occupied. The largest one, right in front of him and in the center of the taverns hall, was baring witness to a gwent game between two of the many men seated around it. Some of them were drinking, others were cheering towards the two players. Regis noted, that in the midst of the bulky sailors a woman sat, sipping ale. He didn’t pay her much mind, even though something about her sent a chill down his spine. 

When his order was placed infront of him, he payed on the spot and indulged in the food. After finishing his broth, in which he'd crumbled the rather dry bread, he took a swig of water from his mug. Over the edge of his beverage he noticed the woman staring at him. So he sat down his drink and stared back. She was not intimidated however and only slowly turned her gaze from him. Regis saw this as excuse enough to in turn study the womans appearance.

She had olive skin, with messy, unruly earthen hair tied back in a loose ponytail, strands of hair dripping around her ears, which were holding vast amounts of golden rings and studs. Her eyes were a muddy hazel in colour, surrounded by heavy makeup. She had many tattoos. Most were located on her exposed forearms but three were underneath her left eye. A ring and two tears, one bigger than the other. Regis also noticed a tattoo around her right hand, which appeared to be a serpent coiling from the wrist, around her palm to the back of her fingers. It reminded him of the Tdet tribes symbol. Her attire looked as though she’d fished it from the sea, which she might have. Around her neck, which held a tattoo of a dagger cutting across her jugular, was a dark red piece of fabric, which without a doubt could be used as a mask, should the need arise. 

His study of her physique was interrupted by his black eyes meeting her hazel ones. For a moment both of them simply glared. Then she flashed him a crooked grin. An icy chill ran down his back, when he noticed she wasn’t grinning. Instead, showing off her teeth. Her white, jagged, sharp teeth. Vampire. Fangs. Danger.

Regis didn’t want to seem spooked or even remotely alarmed by his sudden sense of the woman’s nature. He managed to keep his features as calm as possible and finished his drink, all the while stealing glances at the woman, who had turned back to her comrades, chatting idly. 

After the last drop of his water was drained, he stood up and took his leave. Regis had decided, he wouldn’t be staying at the inn. He was about ten feet from his mule when he could hear heavy feet approaching and before he even had the time to consider what to do, three bulky men, the ones who had sat at the womans table, blocked his way. 

Regis stood still, hands at his satchel in his usual stance. The sailors looked at him without any sort of noticeable malice. Regis was about to ask them kindly to let him pass, when a womans rough voice cut through the silence. 

“Well, well, well...” 

The hazel eyed woman walked past Regis, her hips brushing against his body slightly, without a doubt on purpose. She came to a halt by the three muscular men and turned to gaze at Regis, who at this point was beyond uncomfortable. 

“What have we here?” She spoke with a thick skellige accent. 

Regis raised his hand from his grip around his medicinal bag, but before he even got to open his mouth the woman raised her voice again. 

“Spare me yer 'scuses. I know full well what ye are.” She was leaning one of her shoulders against one of the sailors. He had sandy hair and a long scar across his nose. 

“I am a mere traveler, a passer by, my lady. I mean no trouble” Regis had found his voice again and spoke, as calmly as possible, to the vampiress. 

This roused a cackle from the woman, whose lackeys joined in and chuckled. She narrowed her eyes. 

“Ye take me for a fool? Yer kind breeds trouble. If you’ve come to sample a taste of me boys, ye better get going 'gain. They're my lads, no harm's to come to 'em”

“I have neither come to sample a taste of anyone nor have I come to bring trouble. I am solely passing through and meant to stay the night at the inn, but I have reconsidered.” 

“Ye know, I might look like a common port whore but I'm capable of things. I'm sure ye know what I'm talking 'bout.” 

Regis simply nodded, lowering his gaze a tiny bit. A show of submissiveness.  
The vampiress must have noticed his gesture since this roused another cackle from her and before Regis knew what had happened, she was at his side and patted his shoulder somewhat rough. He didn’t quite know what had just happened.

“Oh c'mon, ye're no fun! I was pulling ye leg! What's yer name friend?” 

Regis was taken abaft. “I beg your pardon?” 

“Oi dont act dumb son, I want to know yer name. I'll do ye one better.” She removed her tattooed hand from his shoulder and bowed, flimsy and none too deep, but still. 

“You have the pleasure of conversing with Azubah mac Blesk, Brigand, Pirate, Vampire and not to mention captain of a tub of lousy landlubbers.” 

A bit stunned, Regis analyzed her words before speaking. She must've been a member of the Tdted tribe, would explain her tattooed hand. And she openly admitted to being a vampire in front of three humans? Odd, to say the least. But Regis had no intention of acting impolite when his vis-á-vis had introduced herself already. In the worst case, if she attacked, he had no doubt he could best her, she seemed at least a couple of decades younger than him. 

“Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” 

The woman – Azubah – looked at him for a moment, silent. Then she spoke again.

“Godefroy you say? So you're that fella that murked that other vampire in Toussaint” 

Regis tensed, his hand clenched around his satchel and he was close to simply disappearing into a trail of fog, when Azubah cackled again. 

“Cheer up mate, you're so stiff I wouldn’t be surprised if a broom just now fell outta yer ass. You've got nothing to worry bout. I don’t care whether or not you're anathema, haven’t stuck me nose into vampire affairs in a loooong time.” 

Regis relaxed a bit, but was still suspicious towards Azubah. He did not trust her. She apparently noticed, suddenly hoisting herself from her leaning position into an upwards stature, grinning in his direction. 

“How's about you join me and the lads for the evening? I'd love to hear some of yer stories, getting a fellow vampire who isnt blood-crazed here is a rarity. Plus I wouldn't recommend wanderin' round these parts at night as anathema, some folks stalk the shadows who aren't as forgivin' as me.”

Regis had little choice, since as soon as she'd made her offer, Azubah hooked her arm around his and pretty much pulled him towards the back of the inn. Her three friends following close behind, humming a tune. 

As they got closer to the bonfire Regis was able to make out most of the men who he had seen sitting at the table inside the inn before. Most of them were waving around bottles containing various alcoholic beverages, others were simply chatting and some were singing slurred songs completely off key, one of them even had a lute. As Regis was pulled into the circle by Azubah, the singing momentarily stopped and Regis grew anxious due to the attention. But just then a hollering wave of cheerful voices called out:

“ZU! Where you been boss?!” 

Azubah placed Regis on a lopsided log, one of many, and took her seat on the opposite side of the fire, sitting down on a small pillow which was neatly placed one of the other logs. 

Regis watched as the young vampiress chatted gleefully with the men and sung along. Regis was startled when a closed bottle of rum landed in his lap. Azubah noticed his sudden jolt and cried:

“Tar you daft cunt, he's not into drinking that swill! He's a fellow bloodsucker, offer him something moderately pleasing at least!” 

The man who had thrown the flask, whose name seemed to be Tar, looked sheepishly and then grinned, revealing exactly two good teeth. 

“Sorry Zu, didn’t rightly recognize him as another vampyre” 

Azubah shook her head with a kind grin on her face  
“I noticed, you're as bright as the firewood in that aspect” 

From somewhere in the jolly group : “ The Firewood’s burning tho, plenty bright” could be heard.

Regis passed the bottle back to the tall man and watched in awe, as two boys went up to the vampiress, one of them clearly quite drunk. He hollered:

“Zuuu.. Ye surely thirst! Here, have me, you said -hic- you said I'd be good for shore.. uh.. sure” 

The smaller of the two, who had eyes the color of seafoam, roughly took the bottle from the other one, claiming it for himself.

“Zu, Jaree here's clearly lost his marbles in all that drink, I'm sure I'll be a much better choice!” 

The young men began to argue before Azubah stood up and pushed them off each other, keeping each of her hands on a respective shoulder. 

“Gentlemen, ye're in luck. I ain’t the only bloodsucker here tonight. Tell you what. Duke it out and the winner will get to sate me, the other can go to my friend over there” she daftly pointed at Regis “and can help him relax” 

Did Regis just hear right? Not only did those men know what she was, they wanted her to feed of them? He could not understand. Why did they not fear her? Before he could ponder the manner of things more, a tug at his arm brought him back to reality. He looked up to see the drunk boy, now with a big bruise above his eyebrow. 

“You thirsty mishter..?” 

Regis swallowed. Never before had a complete stranger freely offered him blood before. He shook his head. Noting how the young mens eyebrow drooped. As if he was disappointed.  
“Well... I tired ..uh- tried!” With those words, the boy turned on his heel, raised his hand and promptly fell on his face, remaining on the floor, where he laughed for almost a whole minute before quickly falling asleep, his cheek pressed against the boot of a fellow sailor. 

Regis regained his composure from the surprise and was shocked to find Azubah gently nipping at the blue eyed boys neck, a tiny trickle of red dripping from beneath her lips. The young man didn’t seem to mind. He was sitting there, leaning against the vampiresses knees, drinking from the stolen bottle while being drunk from. Regis had never seen anything like it before. 

He marveled at the display of gentleness Azubah presented. Only a few moments later she retreated from the boys neck, trailing kisses along his cheek as she pressed a handkerchief to his wound, which he quickly took and held to his neck himself before standing up and waltzing towards the man Regis knew as Tar, who clapped the blue eyes boys shoulder and embraced him. 

Regis watched the scene around the bonfire for a long time. Listening to the slurred conversations of the sailors, the cracking and hissing of the fire as the timber burned to ash. He marveled at the trust these men put into Azubah, a monster by definition, who they allowed to sit amidst them and even drink from without much preamble.

It was only when most of the men had fallen into an intoxicated slumber, that Regis was roused from his almost meditative state by a weight settling next to him. He looked up from the fires remains to see Azubah, who had abandoned her seat across the fire, effectively giving her pillow to the young man she drank from earlier, to sleep on more comfortably. 

“Come walk with me” 

Azubah got up, careful not to nudge the boy who had first offered Regis his vein. Regis followed her to the shore, where they set off on a stroll along the black pebbled beach. Azubahs hair shone a silvery blue in the moonlight, her eyes almost teal.

“The hospitaly which you offered me surprised me, Azubah. Most of our brethren would have attacked me upon learning who I am and knowing what I've done.”

“Most of our brethren...” she turned to look at him, her eyes holding a faint shimmer of hatred. “are cunts.” 

Regis chuckled lightly, the young vampiress reminded him of a certain loud mouthed girl back from when he traveled with Geralts hansa, although that's were the resemblance stopped.

“I suppose that mentality is why you decided to spend your time with a crew of human sailors?” 

Azubah snorted. “You could say that. Honestly though, I'm just way more comfortable around humans, they're not as arrogant as most vampires and if ye find the right blokes, they don’t care what you are, long as your useful.”

“I suppose out on sea your strengths comes in handy”

“Aye, a great many of me boys were deathly scared of me when I first told 'em what I was, but after a week at sea they came to terms with it. Some of em even made it into an honor to be my blood donor for a night of drinking.” 

“I noticed, the young boys who fought over it seemed pretty set on being the ones you drink from tonight. Never really seen anything like it. “

A wide grin manifested on Azubahs face. “Ye, Jaree and Lind, my youngests. They're still trying to please me, unnecessary but I ain’t refusing a drink if offered. You on the other hand, why'd you refuse, I wouldn't 'ave been angry, if you thought ye couldn’t cause of me.” 

Regis let his shoulders slack, a sigh escaping him.

“I haven touched a drop of blood for a long time. I had a problem with it in my youth and don't plan on going back to facing similar problems in the future, I however didn’t mean to offend you in any way.”

“Ah, so ye were one of those bloodguzzlers huh? Knew one a time ago, poor lad had my pity. But speakin' of youth, how old are ye? Yer name is awfully fancy, so you must be one of the older fellows.” 

“Would you like that in human or elven years?” 

“Human, I can just add them 214 years if I wanted elven.” 

“Four hundred and twenty-eight, now I know it is rude to ask a lady, but ..?” 

Azubah cackled quietly.

“No worries mate, I'm 254, still a young flipper by your standards I'm sure.” 

Regis hummed in agreement. They continued to walk in silence for a while before Regis picked up the conversation again. 

“Where were you born? I recognize your accent as Skellige, do you hail from the islands?” 

“Aye, my mother raised me near Kaer Trolde, me and me brother.” 

“You have a brother?”

“Förd, A Human. Mum found him some winter and brought him in, ye shoul've seen how he looked. Like a godling, blue and small, with pieces of bush stuck in his hair. He was better company than anything I would’ve ever asked for as a youngling.” 

“Sounds like you're really close to your brother” 

Azubahs grin faded. 

“Were. He's dead.” 

“I'm sorry I didnt know-”

“It's aight. No offense taken and besides, I've avenged him.”  
Regis stood still, making Azubah turn around and look at him.

“You avenged him..?”

“Yes, he was barely a man when one girl called Kharla caught his fancy. They were set to be married but Kharla... she was an evil bitch. A vampire, chosen by mum to take care of sweet Förd. And she took care of him. For good. I tore out that whores heart and carved her neck til I hit bone, then threw her body off to be fed on by sharks.” 

Azubahs hands trembled slightly. Regis went and stroked her arm, a gesture showing understanding. She smiled again, even if her smile now was hiding deep hurt.

“I'm sorry for what happened to your brother. I understand now why you prefer the company of humans. I do too.” 

“My crew,all of them blokes remind me of Förd. I would much rather give my life than let anything happen to them. I mourn whenever the sea takes one of 'em... Tell me, what made you kill that Dettlaff bloke in Toussaint? I've heard stories about it, but never really understood it all.” 

Regis inhaled sharply, he had picked up quite a few human attributes. He didn’t even need to breathe.

“Dettlaff was a friend. A dear friend who'd brought me back from the brink of death. He disappeared and when I finally tracked him down, he was tangled up in affairs greater than him. Without delving into details, he was being blackmailed and made a murderer. When he found the blackmailer with the help of another very dear friend, a witcher, he was furious. He sicked a massive attack on the city of Beauclaire, hundreds of innocents died. When my friend and I went to confront him together with the blackmailer, he tried to kill them, but after my friend the witcher interfered, his rage consumed him. He tried to murder my friend, I couldn’t let that happen. When we finally cut him down, leaving him on the floor helpless, I couldn’t let him suffer anymore. He felt despair and hatred. Nothing else. I.. ended him.” 

Azubah glared at him, with narrowed eyes. 

“That witcher. He's your mate isn’t he?”

Regis pursed his lips, then let out a defeated sigh.

“Is it that obvious?” 

“Sweetness even your scent changed as soon as you started talking about him, not even your flowery perfume could hide that. But don’t worry, I understand. I'm happy for you” 

Azubah flashed him a warm, kind smile, before breaking her gaze and looking over the horizon. 

“You should probably get going, suns gonna be up in some hours, I trust you'd rather leave fore my mates wake up.” 

“It's as tough you could read my mind” 

“We ain't so different form each other. I wish you luck Regis, and I hope you'll get to see your witcher again someday. I hope we'll meet again. Us anathemas need to stick together.” 

Azubah, without much warning, embraced the older vampire, lifting him a bit off the ground as she did. A normal human would probably have been crushed by her strength. But Regis simply enjoyed the moment, before leaving the hug, turning to where he had left his mule. 

“One last thing!” 

Regis stopped and turned to look at Azubah, who was still standing on the pebble beach, while he was already back on grassland. 

“A days ride from here is a small village with a giant red barn. If I were ye, I'd avoid it, the fella there ain't too fond of blokes breaking the code. Ride through the forest instead. There might be a leshen-cunt there but it's still the lesser evil of the two.” 

Regis nodded in gratitude, which earned a smile and wave from Azubah and sauntered towards his steed, which greeted him with a snort. He unwound it from the pole where he'd left it and went off towards Nilfgaard.

He so did not wish to ever arrive. 

 

To be continued..?

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I have legit no Geological knowledge either of real life places nor witcher, so please forgive me if I messed up somewhat with the world and where everything is. I tried to describe the general vibe a bonfire gives me everytime I sit near one, dunno if I suceeded? Let me know : D  
> This is the first ever English fanfiction I've written, so pardon any slip-ups please.  
> A fun little fact you might enjoy: Azubah hails from the hebrewic tongue and means Left behind or abandoned, which fits the character pretty well I'd say  
> In the part "she reminded him of a certain girl from Geralts hansa" I was refering to Angouléme btw


End file.
